Dick Durbin: “in the year 1789, the U.S. Senate, in a chamber not far from here, approved the first 10 amendments to the Constitution.…”

“in the year 1789, the U.S. Senate, in a chamber not far from here, approved the first 10 amendments to the Constitution. The Second Amendment reads: ``A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.'' The Second Amendment to the Constitution is an amendment which has been uttered, debated, and litigated over the entire history of the United States. Whatever the true intent of our Founding Fathers in writing that language, that brief sentence, I wonder if they could even imagine what we are dealing with today in the name of the right of people to keep and bear arms because every day, on average, in America, 297 people are shot--every day--and 89 of them die every day in America. Last Saturday I was with my wife in Chicago having a cup of coffee and reading over the papers, listening to National Public Radio. They reported the Roseburg, OR, shooting at the community college, and they cited a statistic that I was not aware of: That shooting at the community college that killed nine innocent people was the 45th school shooting in America this year. There have been 45 shootings in schools. There were many other mass shootings in different places, but now even schools, even students, even schoolchildren are not safe from the rampage of guns. I am honored to represent the city of Chicago. It is a great city. I do my best to help it in every way I can.…”